Outrageous HSBC Settlement Proves the Drug War is a Joke (Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone)

[Max Headroom]

some excerpts from
http://www.rollingstone.com/politic...lement-proves-the-drug-war-is-a-joke-20121213

If you've ever been arrested on a drug charge, if you've ever spent even a day in jail for having a stem of marijuana in your pocket or "drug paraphernalia" in your gym bag, Assistant Attorney General and longtime Bill Clinton pal Lanny Breuer has a message for you: Bite me.


Breuer this week signed off on a settlement deal with the British banking giant HSBC that is the ultimate insult to every ordinary person who's ever had his life altered by a narcotics charge.



Despite the fact that HSBC admitted to laundering billions of dollars for Colombian and Mexican drug cartels (among others) and violating a host of important banking laws (from the Bank Secrecy Act to the Trading With the Enemy Act), Breuer and his Justice Department elected not to pursue criminal prosecutions of the bank, opting instead for a "record" financial settlement of $1.9 billion, which as one analyst noted is about five weeks of income for the bank.


The banks' laundering transactions were so brazen that the NSA probably could have spotted them from space. Breuer admitted that drug dealers would sometimes come to HSBC's Mexican branches and "deposit hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, in a single day, into a single account, using boxes designed to fit the precise dimensions of the teller windows."


[...]


So you might ask, what's the appropriate financial penalty for a bank in HSBC's position? Exactly how much money should one extract from a firm that has been shamelessly profiting from business with criminals for years and years? Remember, we're talking about a company that has admitted to a smorgasbord of serious banking crimes. If you're the prosecutor, you've got this bank by the balls. So how much money should you take?

How about all of it? How about every last dollar the bank has made since it started its illegal activity? How about you dive into every bank account of every single executive involved in this mess and take every last bonus dollar they've ever earned? Then take their houses, their cars, the paintings they bought at Sotheby's auctions, the clothes in their closets, the loose change in the jars on their kitchen counters, every last freaking thing. Take it all and don't think twice. And then throw them in jail.

Sound harsh? It does, doesn't it? The only problem is, that's exactly what the government does just about every day to ordinary people involved in ordinary drug cases.



[...]
On the other hand, if you are an important person, and you work for a big international bank, you won't be prosecuted even if you launder nine billion dollars. Even if you actively collude with the people at the very top of the international narcotics trade, your punishment will be far smaller than that of the person at the very bottom of the world drug pyramid. You will be treated with more deference and sympathy than a junkie passing out on a subway car in Manhattan (using two seats of a subway car is a common prosecutable offense in this city). An international drug trafficker is a criminal and usually a murderer; the drug addict walking the street is one of his victims. But thanks to Breuer, we're now in the business, officially, of jailing the victims and enabling the criminals.

check out the full article:
http://www.rollingstone.com/politic...lement-proves-the-drug-war-is-a-joke-20121213

 

[wingdings]

Disgusting...

 

[budlover123]

Matt Taibbi is the man, this article contains too much truth for me to handle right now.

 

[mowood3479]

par for the course.. must be nice playing by their set of rules.. they cant lose.
that must get boring

 

[gang-of-trees]

This is sooooooo in everybody's face but it just proves money make this world go round.
How many crimes do the banks have to commit before anything is done.

Watched a program last week on how we as tax payers we bailed out the banks and now there taking people's homes of the people that bailed them out. Wankers!!

Where's the bail out for those people?

Sorry rant over!

 

[Max Headroom]

banking is organized crime that has been legalized very long ago.

 

[TheArchitect]

It's funny, in a way, more sad, but still I get a chuckle....


The reason theses guys get off, aside from being well connected and filthy rich, is that if the money laundering actually stopped, both the banking sector of the world and the housing sector of the united states would come crumbling down in a pile of rubble.

Hundreds of billions, if not trillions of dollars of drug money are ran through banks and the US housing market.

Real estate agents don't have to abide by anti-money laundering regulations for a reason, and in reality, the federal government and the banks know they'd be screwed if the drug money stopped flowing.

This was a circus show for the masses. Someone slipped up and got found out, so the Feds had to put on their kangaroo court to show they are fighting against the "bad guys"

 

[Green81]

We are not surprised with the end conclusion, but why do we still allow these c unts to stay in power.

Fuck guys we all need to step up our game, for our children's sake for the very least.

Goody vibes

G81

 

[terminalc]

And the rich get richer...

 

[Iffy]

And on and on it goes..... where will it end? - Nobody knows!
Where will it end? Where do you see civilisation in 50 years? It's like a slippery slope and it's gathering momentum all we mortals can do is watch & worry for our children and theirs.
It saddens me.
Stay safe people.

 

[Maj.PotHead]

9 billion nothing chump change


google LIBOR hows 350 trillion sound

 

[gang-of-trees]

And on and on it goes..... where will it end? - Nobody knows!
Where will it end? Where do you see civilisation in 50 years? It's like a slippery slope and it's gathering momentum all we mortals can do is watch & worry for our children and theirs.
It saddens me.
Stay safe people.

It will end when the end of capitalism as we know it.
All you got to do is give power to the wrong people and they always end up fuckin the whole thing up.

It's happened again again over history of the world.
Still these type of people never learn.

 

[Max Headroom]

ridiculous idea: instead of working for maximum profits that get accumulated out of reach, why not change the aim of the system to maximize common good? y'know, infrastructure, housing, food and shit...

insane, i know.

 

[TheArchitect]

The root of the "system" is basic animal instinct, coupled with high cognitive functioning.



Good luck changing that.

 

[greenmatter]

fucking banks and politics

i would like to live by the rules they have to follow ........ steal $100 and have to give back $1.90 in a "settlement"

gee, do you think they will do it again?

 

[quitelost]

"Basic animal instinct" is not a valid explanation. The lion is not the king of the jungle, every day we find more evidence of the communication and interaction between animals, insects, bacteria, fungi etc. to create natural ecosystems.

I don't think this dated system is the best example of high cognitive functioning either, it is highly inefficient and stresses short term gains for very few at the expense of the many, the natural ecosystems that sustain us.

Despite that modern society at its roots may resemble a feudal system we the common folk have made steps to improve our living, working conditions (8 hour work day etc..).

 

[TheArchitect]

Lol what system.

We live in a chaotic world, painting any ism as the problem doesn't fly, and is a simplistic way of looking at it.

Higher cognitive functioning.... I don't see any other animal with computers, schools, psychologists, cars etc.

Animal instinct, monkeys and many other animals steal from eachother. Its root is a survival drive, wether its physical survival, status survival, estate survival....

We are nothing but animals.

 

[Harry Gypsna]

Glen Greenwald said it best last week.
"Too big to jail"

 

[resinryder]

If you lock up the bankers who's gonna pay the tokes to the politicians? You people need to get real real fast!!! Serious sarcasm intended!!

 

[rives]

Exactly what would you expect from the Obama DOJ? These are the people who brought us Fast and Furious, let Jon Corzine go scott free after "misplacing" billions of dollars at MF Global, kick the shit out of California mmj because of the "potential for abuse", etc, etc. Remember - it's Bush that is the devil incarnate.